China legislates to curb discrimination against HIV/AIDS

China, where discrimination against those suffering from the AIDS virus is rife, now has a new law which aims to protect people infected with the virus.

China has for many years been heavily criticised for being slow to respond to the spread of AIDS in the country, but has stepped up its public fight against the disease in the past two years, with senior leaders holding publicised meetings with victims.

Vice health minister Wang Longde, says that stigma and discrimination are still prevalent, and are the main stumbling blocks to preventing the spread of AIDS.

The minister was speaking at a forum in Shanghai.

Last year, in an effort to break taboos, Chinese President Hu Jintao shook hands with AIDS patients at a hospital in Beijing, and Premier Wen Jiabao this year spent Lunar New Year with impoverished sufferers of the disease.

The Ministry of Health found in a survey last year, that nearly 60 percent of urban residents would be nervous and afraid to have contact with HIV positive people in public, which underlines the fear and ignorance surrounding the disease.

The Ministry of Health expects the new law, specifically to protect the rights of those infected and their families. It will come into effect by the end of this year.

Wang says although there is widespread recognition of AIDS, there is also almost a complete lack of understanding about it.

Last year, China passed its first law to try and ensure victims of infectious disease such as AIDS or SARS were not discriminated against.

Although China's official estimate of 840,000 HIV/AIDS cases is regarded as too low by international health experts, the country has at last begun acknowledging its spread after ignoring it for years.

According to experts at least one million poor farmers were infected in the central province of Henan alone as a result of botched blood-selling schemes in the 1990s.

Just last week a Chinese expect warned that China faces a tragic surge in HIV/AIDS cases unless it curbs the spread of the disease among the vast country's transient rural workforce, estimated at about 100 million people.

Health experts also fear a rise of the virus among migrant women labourers, many of whom often resort to becoming sex workers when they cannot find other work.